Saboteur Analysis

Saboteur
By Ha Jin

"Within over a month eight hundred people contracted acute hepatitis in Muji. Six died of the disease, including two children. Nobody knew how the epidemic had started".

The short story Saboteur is an exploration of one character's radical shift in his faith and belief in  institutions and  the government when he is unjustly locked away in a prison for days on end. However whilst the majority of  story  expands more into the situation of how it intimately feels to be harmed and  failed by the institutions you believe are there to protect you, the author also brings another complex concept to light. This concept is how should one act and more importantly show resistance to a  governing body or authority whose  corruption and self-serving actions have negatively harmed you.  The quote chosen describes the route of opposition the Mr. Chiu, the main character of the story has chosen. However the path of revenge he has chosen to take on his aggressors is one that  has been rashly thought out is being carried out through intense anger.  
         
       After he has been made to bend and yield before the whims of the police officers who arrested him, Mr. Chiu decides to spread his disease amongst the different food vendors in the city. I arose at this conclusion due to the scene where that "As if dying of hunger,Mr.Chiu dragged his lawyer from restaurant to restaurant near the police station, but at each place he ordered no more than two bowls of food. Fenjin wondered why his teacher wouldn't stay at one place and eat his fill". What raised my  suspicions about Mr. Chui's motives and deterred me from the view that he was simply enjoying his freedom out of prison was the fact that the only stopped at restaurants that where near the prison, where potentially the corrupt  police officers he hated  might frequent. In addition, as he was eating at these places he kept mumbling darkly to himself, "If only I could kill all the bastards!". However in the quote that I have chosen the reader comes to the realization that  that Mr.  Chui's rash actions had far-reaching and unpredictable consequences. 

                  It is in this quote I feel as though Ha Jin made an extremely powerful commentary on the potentially devastating impact of ill-planned, ill-timed, and emotionally driven retaliation against  governing bodies and authorities which have inflicted harm.  From the quote the reader can surmise that that he most likely not only infected and fatally impacted  his intended targets, the police officers, but also many innocent people, including the next generation- the children. There fore through Mr. Chui's character, it is as if Ha Jin is telling the reader, one can do more harm than good if they do not plan their resistance against corrupt governing bodies and authorities,  with a level-head and a clearly defined positive impact. Fro when the reader views the big picture of what happened in the world of the story, Mr. Chiu's thoughtless actions  ended up being more of a terror and literal disease  to the livelihoods and futures of the people of Muji, than the corrupt police force ever were. In the end he became all that he had vehemently claimed he wasn't in the beginning - a saboteur.

Everything that Rises Must Converge Analysis

Everything that Rises Must Converge
by Flannery O'Conner

"The further irony of all this was that in spite of her, he had turned out so well. In spite of going to only a third-rate college, he had, on his own initiative, come out with a first-rate education; in spite of growing up dominated by a small mind, he had ended up with a large one; in spite of all her foolish views, he was free of prejudice and unafraid to face facts. Most miraculous of all, instead of being blinded by love for her as she was for him, he had cut himself emotionally free of her and could see her with complete objectivity. He was not dominated by his mother"- pg.4

This quote perfectly sums up the mindset of the main character of this short story. He is a self righteous and hypocritical   young man  who seems to be  obsessed with proving him self to be superior to his  racist mother.  However what strikes the reader as odd is Julian's supposed misson to terrorize and make his mother uncomfortable. He doesn't just seem to  want to separate himself from her emotionally in order to view her unbiased as the quote would imply. Rather is seems he is on a misson to cause her emotional pain and discomfort. Almost as if he is seeking vengeance on her for behaving and thinking the way she does.  For example  in the story Julian states outright " everything that gave her pleasure was small and depressed him". One would expect never expect a son to this about his mother. Rather the hateful sentiment expressed in the quote would more likely be exchanged between two enemies. 

       Yet what is even more puzzling is his reasonings behind why  he is so resentful of his mother. He claims that she is blinded by her love for him and she was happy to sacrifice herself in order to grant him an education. Yet his mother's selfless actions does not  inspire an out pouring of  love and gratitude. Rather he says "The law of it was to sacrifice herself for him after she had first created the necessity to do so by making a mess of things. If he had permitted her sacrifices, it was only because her lack of foresight had made them necessary". In this quote  its almost as if he blames  his mother for her creating a situation  in which she would have to sacrifice herself for him and in turn he would be forever indebted to her. The Julian goes on to state  that  "All of her life had been a struggle to act like a Chestny and to give him everything she thought a Chestny ought to have without the goods a Chestny ought to have;  but since, said she, it was fun to struggle, why complain? And when you had won, as she had won, what fun to look back on the hard times! He could not forgive her that she had enjoyed the struggle and that she thought she had won." Now it seems as if  main character is angry his mother being happy to sacrifice herself for him and has warped their mother-son relationship into a competition where he should always be the victor. However  the great irony is that the reasons why he feels he should be considered superior to his mother  are completely hypocritical. Just as how his mother is a racist, he follows suit when referred to the african american man on the bus as a " a better type-negro". Almost as if he was talking about a separate  species, not another man . Yet through his all his self righteous  efforts to break his mother's spirit never does he consider the far reaching consequences of his actions. This was a lesson he learned the hard way after he unknowingly  continued to torment his mother while she had a heart attack.
 

complicity analysis

Complicity
By, Tim Parrish

Quote-" Maybe he didn't think there was anything he could do. Nobody got hurt. Maybe he didn't think it was so wrong". pg. 5

           I chose this quote for the significance it holds for the growth and actions of the main charter.  In particular the quote speaks very well to the meaning behind the title  of the story , which is complicity. During the short story, the main character Jeb comes a realization that line between right and wrong when it comes to revealing the truth   is not as black and white as he had childishly   perceived it to be. Contrary to the moral lessons young children such as Jeb are taught, in which they must always speak the truth in order to be good and virtuous, Jeb gains awareness of the reality this principle during the story.  Rather than clearly defined black and white  lines of  what is right and wrong,  there are  instead  grays  areas in which  one first must consider their position and weigh the benefits and detriments of speaking the truth before they act. Then if one reasons that the cons outweigh the pros of telling truth, usually the truth remains hidden under the sometimes blanket of deception known as complicity.
            In the quote chosen, Jeb's mother provides him a great example of how the reality of complicity can play out through the example of a racially charged  act of vandalism. Jeb's mother states that his father had knowledge of the person who had bombed the pool dressing room, yet for the various reasons given in the quote Jeb's rather decided not to speak up.Maybe like  the quote suggests Jeb's father  felt powerless to right the wrongs of the person who did it, and maybe due to his own racist views he felt the integrated park should be destroyed. Either way, it seems  Jeb's father had weighed the pros and cons of speaking up about who committed the crime, and decided that it was in his best interest to stay quiet.  Jeb's initial disillusionment with this idea that wrong and right to most are two distinct entities with no overlap was displayed when he said, "I wasn't sure why he should have told, except hat not telling seemed somehow a lie". This must have been a jarring revelation for Jeb to encounter being that as a young child he must have often been told that lying is a very bad thing to do.
      Another interesting aspect of complicity this story explores is the role of power dynamics in what one is willing to accept and what one is willing to stand against. Take for example Jeb's contemptuous relationship with Mr. Park's son. Because Mr. Park seems to have a lot of power in the community as a member of the police force, both Jeb's mother and his brother urge him to be compliant against  the bullying from Mr. Park's son. For example, after Jeb hits Rickey in retaliation he is told by his brother that he needs to be nice to ricky because Mr. Park got Bob his job on the police force . In addition  in the story Jeb stated that Mr. Park's bullying  and intimidation often made him feel small, but he felt powerless to do something and speak up about everything due to the power dynamics of the situation.

August 2026 Analysis

August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains

By, Ray Bradbury

"And not one will know of the war and not one will care when it is done"

This quote from the poem "There Will Come Soft Rains"  sums up a great deal of  the message  Ray Bradbury  is trying to express to reader through his short story. The story is centered around a fully automated house which continues to operate even after its human inhabitants have been killed by a nuclear explosion. Strikingly enough it is the only house left standing  amongst all the rumble and destruction left from the bomb. The  house in itself serves as a great representation of  the message the quote conveys. My interpretation of the message is that when you have  cause escalating destruction due to war, who will be left to even note who was the most destructive in the end when everybody has been decimated by the destruction. I say the house is a great representation of this because it is one of the only  intact reminders of  humanity and the family which once lived there. For example the house still prepares breakfast, cleans, prepares things for the family, and guards the house as if the family is coming back with words such as "Who goes there?Whats the password?". 

    One of the most depressing aspects of the situation is that the home in the end is just another programmed piece of technology which cannot truly miss the family or grasp the true extent of all that was lost in the nuclear explosion.  There is also something inherently cold, mechanical, and  unfeeling about the house. Even if its inhabitants are dead or the dog dies in a frenzy on the kitchen floor the house still carries on and goes through the motions of what it was programmed to do. Even after it has been almost completely destroyed, its daily alerts still ring eerily on  saying, "Today is August 5, 2026". The immediate reaction I had when I  repeatedly read the house's date and time alerts was "who cares". The people who could appreciate such a reminder are gone. This is exactly the kind of reaction I feel Ray Bradbury wanted to get from the reader. A reaction in which they come to realize, what was the point of creating all this technology to solve and make easier all of these simple life tasks and problems such as cleaning or keeping the kids entertained, when you can't develop a solution or compromise to end the biggest threat of all-the war.